Bangladesh have rung in a host of changes following the defeat to Afghanistan, including bringing back experienced pacemen Rubel Hossain and Shafiul Islam, for their third and fourth matches of the ongoing T20I tri-series at home, where Zimbabwe are the third team, reports cricinfo.
Soumya Sarkar, a regular with the team across formats, had a poor World Cup, and though he shone with bat and ball in the third ODI in Sri Lanka in late July, returns of 4 and 0 in the two tri-series games have led to his axing. Also going out were offspinner Mahedi Hasan, and pacemen Abu Hider and Yeasin Arafat, none of whom played any of the two matches - a win over Zimbabwe and the loss to Afghanistan.
Both those matches, as well as Afghanistan's win over Zimbabwe, were played in Dhaka, and now the action shifts to Chattogram for the second set of round-robin matches. Apart from Rubel and Shafiul, Bangladesh have drafted in Najmul Hossain, the left-handed top-order batsman, teenaged legspinning-allrounder Aminul Islam, and exciting young opening batsman Mohammad Naim.
Najmul, 21, has played two Test matches and three ODIs since making his international debut in January 2017, and was recently among the runs in both the one-dayers and the four-dayers on the Bangladesh Emerging Team's tour of Sri Lanka.
Aminul, 19, was also on that tour, but didn't do much of note. However, with Bangladesh looking for a wristspinner to complement their many fingerspinners, Aminul might get a chance in the two remaining group-stage matches to show his capabilities.
Like Aminul, Naim is uncapped at the international level, but is regarded highly in local cricket circles. A tall, left-handed opening batsman, 20-year-old Naim made a name for himself in last season's Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, scoring 807 runs in 16 games for Legends of Rupganj to finish second on the run-scorers' list.
Rubel Hossain, meanwhile, hasn't played a T20I since August last year and hasn't played any T20 cricket since February this year, but has likely been brought back to add some experience to the pace attack, which is also the case with Shafiul, whose last T20I appearance came back in October 2017.
Squad changes
IN: Najmul Hossain, Aminul Islam, Mohammad Naim, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam
OUT: Soumya Sarkar, Mahedi Hasan, Abu Hider, Yeasin Arafat
